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The spot for the good news, the good word, the quick reports of the many, many wonderful news items I hear all the time and want to share with the rest of you. Expect to find the good news when you come to check out "what’s the good word?"

Monday, October 24, 2011

This weekend I followed the activities going on in Independence at our (Community of Christ's) Peace Colloquy.

Friday night there was a webcast of the opening service that included an address by Terry Tempest Williams who received our award for 2011. You can still watch it on-line if you go to the web site. And you can explore her biography and all the reasons she was selected for this year's award. She's in wonderful company as the church has been handing out these awards since 2005 and the recipients represent an awesome group of folks who've done much to bring peace and justice into what sometimes appears to be an irredeemably broken world.

My experience this year was somewhat different as my Independence family was in full attendance and my very "plugged in" son was posting pictures and commentary throughout the experience. In fact, if you happen to be a facebook friend of Art Smith, you could have had a similar experience.

A colloquy is a somewhat high-fallutin' word for an informal conference, an expanded conversation really, about some topic. As a church dedicated to peace, reconciliation and healing the spirit, with a recently expressed mission to promote peace on earth, it does make sense that we'd choose the topic of peace to have such a conversation about. We're great at conversations! We're even great at honouring folks who've done something to promote peace. Why, right here in Canada East, we've got several congregations who've given peace awards to students in their community who appear to understand what making peace is all about.

I had a note from a friend the other day who shared with me how she works with the Victim/Witness Assistance Program in her town. She was responding to my identity post. I am truly grateful for her encouragement to seek out such a purpose in my own future.

I hope to be someone who does more than just carry out conversations about peace and justice. Noble and important as those are, the real purpose is to encourage us to find ways to be the peacemakers on the ground, in the place where we live, given the gifts that we possess. Really, every single recipient of the Community of Christ Peace Award has done exactly that. They were just ordinary folk who decided to go ahead and do something concrete to pursue peace on earth.